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The Watering Hole, Monday, July 20th, 2015: Iran Nuclear Deal Fallout

Last week, it was announced that the long-awaited Iran Nuclear Deal was finally agreed to by the negotiating parties. The EU High Representative and the Iran Foreign Minister issued a joint statement, which included the following:

“With courage, political will, mutual respect, and leadership, we delivered on what the world was hoping for: a shared commitment to peace and to join hands in order to make our world safer.’

Apparently conservatives don’t understand most of the words and phrases in that statement. As we have seen throughout the Obama presidency, their idea of “negotiation” means “you give us everything we want, or else.” FoxNews gives a rundown on the ‘highlights'(?):

Jeb Bush:“This isn’t diplomacy – it is appeasement.”

Ted Cruz:This is a “fundamental betrayal of the security of the United States.”

Ben Carson:“A historic mistake with potentially deadly consequences.”

Scott Walker:“Will be remembered as one of America’s worst diplomatic failures.”
[According to Raw Story, Walker also stated that:

“He would terminate it as soon as possible and persuade U.S. allies to join Washington in imposing more crippling economic sanctions on Tehran…

He would dramatically increase U.S. military spending after budget cuts that military officials have complained about…

“The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in the face of our enemies,” Walker says.”]

Marco Rubio: The President made “concession after concession to a regime that has American blood on its hands.”

Now, the above presidential wannabes mainly focused their criticism on the ‘evil’ Iran, with a minor mention of our bestest friend ever in the whole wide world, Israel. Huckabee, on the other hand, is pretty much all Israel, with barely even a mention of OUR country, the United States.

Mike Huckabee:“Shame on the Obama administration…

“Shame on the Obama administration for agreeing to a deal that empowers an evil Iranian regime to carry out its threat to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and bring ‘death to America.’John Kerry should have long ago gotten up on his crutches, walked out of the sham talks, and went straight to Jerusalem to stand next to Benjamin Netanyahu and declared that America will stand with Israel and the other sane governments of the Middle East instead of with the terrorist government of Iran.

As president, I will stand with Israel and keep all options on the table, including military force, to topple the terrorist Iranian regime and defeat the evil forces of radical Islam.”[emphasis mine]

Mike, why don’t you just move to Israel and run for president there? ‘Cause there will be no “As president” for you here. You do realize that this agreement is about limiting Iran’s ability to acquire a nuclear weapon, not the unHoly war you’re salivating over.

Donald Trump:“Iran gets everything and loses nothing.”

[The Donald was also quoted by FoxBusiness as saying, without elaboration, “I think the deal is absolutely horrible for us, but it’s really, really bad for Israel”]

Rick Perry:If elected, I will “fully rescind this accord.”

“President Obama’s decision to sign a nuclear deal with Iran is one of the most destructive foreign policy decisions in my lifetime. For decades to come, the world will have to deal with the repercussions of this…”

Seriously, Rick? You think that signing a deal that means peace, that signals a willingness to negotiate instead of starting WWIII, is more destructive than deliberately and cavalierly lying our country into a wasteful quagmire of an unnecessary war?

Perry also stated: “As President, one of my first official acts will be to fully rescind this accord.”

There’s more, including comments from the lower-tier lineup of Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and…wait, is that it? Oh, yeah, and Elmer Pataki. But there’s no need to continue wallowing in the their ignorance, I think you get the idea.

Do any of those responses reflect “courage, political will, mutual respect [or respect of any kind], and leadership”? I think it’s abundantly clear that the (R) presidential field has none of those qualities.

It’s the undercurrent that has, sadly, come to define this country, i.e. the “culture of ignorance” that is maintained and promoted by and for the ignorant. Fear and irrational hatred define each and all of those whose only solution is war and/or mass murder.

To them, war is cool. It proves superiority, especially for the cowards that start it and direct it from the safety of a bunker several thousand miles away from the fray. How many of the Republican Clown Car passengers would be willing or able to lead the charge ‘over there’? I suspect the answer is clear and obvious.

The biggest undercurrent is even more disgusting than ignorance; it’s all about MONEY. War is cool; there’s lots of money in it. If one of these R-Goombahs should happen to get elected, the “Defense” (aka WAR) budget will soar, much to the detriment of common people in every corner of the country. But the pasture bulls won’t give a shit as they offshore their huge wartime profits.

This country is dying. One might think a majority of people could spot that and change things. I won’t hold my breath in anticipation, though; not so long as greed and stupidity rule.

I think I can state with absolute certainty that NONE of the people quoted above has any real idea what is int he deal. I base this on the fact that these comments came within minutes of the deal’s announcement. None of the people quoted had any time to look over the deal. None of them could possibly know anything factual about the deal. They are all lying.

I seriously doubt than any of the Clown Car passengers have enough gray matter to know the difference between a lie and reality. And if maybe one or two of them could tell the difference, they’d lie anyway because there’s more money in it.

A decades old Wizard of Id strip summed up today’s Republican party. In it, the little king was on his castle balcony and with a wave of his arm he said, “What a wonderful melting pot this kingdom is!” To which the wizard replied, “The problem with a melting pot is that all the scum comes to the top.”

political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They hoped thereby to secure the release of several US hostages, and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.

I just saw the “Concession after concession to a regime that has American blood on its hands,” almost spit my own tongue out. This from the regime that installed the Shah, and taught the SAVAK how to torture?

Arizona’s been slowly slipping into the nutcase/racist abyss since around the time former Governor Evan Mecham was impeached and tossed from office. When he was first elected his personal racism seemed to act as justification for the more rabid nuts, then picked up steam as Arpaio started playing his racist games.

It got more severe as time went on. I still remember when Janet Napolitano was governor. One of the first to die in Dubsie’s half-witted Iraq invasion fiasco was a young Hopi woman from Arizona named Lori Piestewa. Napolitano managed to rename Phoenix landmark Squaw Peak to honor Piestewa (and get rid of the “Squaw” baggage — but the name Piestewa Peak really pissed the hater crowd off. She did it anyway, also renamed the Squaw Peak Freeway accordingly. The racists screamed even louder. Then came that nutcase “papers please” bill in the state legislature, and all of a sudden racial hatred and fear were ‘official’ under Jan Brewer’s “governor” (that’s a laugh) years.

I lived in AZ for more than 40 years and loved the place — until Mecham set it on its downhill course. It’s been 7 years since I left, and I still miss the desert and mountains and canyons, but I sure as hell don’t miss the idiots.

And a little plug for my daughter who’s Dept. Manager for UC Santa Cruz Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics:

“Today investor Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking announced a $100 Million Breakthrough Prize Initiative to dramatically reinvigorate the search for intelligent life in the universe over the next ten years.” Maybe they can re-task it to search here on earth.